The book by Rudolf Som (1841-1917), a prominent German church historian, whose concept generally dominates modern Protestant scholarship, is dedicated, according to the author, to an attempt to “understand the closed connection of the development of the church structure from early Christianity to the present day, and in at the same time – the relationship of the church legal system to the spiritual essence of the Church, to those vital forces that, from the days of the apostles to the present, without dying, they carry and form the existence of the Church.”

The appendix to the book contains a detailed article by Doctor of Canon Law, Professor of the Moscow Theological Academy N. A. Zaozersky “On the essence of church law (against the views of Prof. Rudolf Som).”

For all those interested in the history of the ancient Church.